Seattle Sounders FC picks up where it left off: Selling out Qwest Field

The Seattle Sounders FC has my vote as the fastest-rising sport property in the world. According to Champions of The Sport Market, they also gave Major League Soccer the biggest sport business gain of 2009 in the United States and Canada.

Bottom line: they are architects of the most impressive expansion franchise launch in North American professional sport history. Bar none.

Thursday night, the Sounders kicked off their sophomore season in Major League Soccer the way they left off their storybook expansion campaign last fall; by selling out the lower bowl and more at Qwest Field, the home they share with the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League.

Seattle hung a 2-0 shutout win on the Philadelphia Union, the league's newest expansion entry. That's the box score; that's the sport story.

The sport business story is as if not more impressive. A sellout crowd of 35,500, including an eye-popping 32,000 season ticket holders. After leading the MLS in attendance in their 2009 debut, they are already sold out this year through July; despite expanding their seating configuration and capacity by more than 3,000 seats (now about 10 rows into the upper deck at Qwest).

Merchandise sales that make SoDo (Seattle's south downtown district in and around Qwest and Safeco) awash in lime green at least 20 times a year. Scarves that have become the new fashion statement in the Emerald City. A band march of thousands of fans to the stadium before every home game. Solid television and radio ratings.

It makes it hard to choose what is more impressive about the way the Sounders have made their early mark on MLS in particular and North American sport in general. Is it the terrific tangibles of ticket sales, sponsorship sales, merchandising and cash flow? Or is it the intangibles of how authentic a soccer experience the Sounders have created for Seattle or how they've worked hand-in-hand with the Washington State youth soccer community to do so?

It might be difficult for the Sounders to exceed expectations the way they did last year in making the playoffs as an expansion team. But either way, they will continue to lead the league in tangibles and intangibles; an impressive achievement in this era of professional sport.

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NHL's own Coyotes spin Slap Shot-like tale

Whether it's called Flight of the Phoenix, From the Ashes of Bankruptcy or simply Believe It or Not, the Phoenix Coyotes are the closest thing the National Hockey League has to a Hollywood script in its 2009-'10 season.

In fact, despite not featuring the Hanson brothers or anything close, the Coyotes invoke the cult movie storyline of the Charleston Chiefs of Slap Shot fame.

Barry Riz of TSN.ca channeled the 1977 flick, the most popular hockey movie of all time, in a blog Monday night as the Coyotes occupied -- albeit temporarily -- a share of first place in the western conference of the NHL.

Instead of the Federal League, it's the NHL...it's not Reggie Dunlap (Paul Newman), it's Shane Doan...Jobing.com Arena in place of War Memorial Arena...stories of relocating to southern Ontario (last summer) and now Winnipeg or Kansas City instead of Florida...instead of a new, aggressive team fronted by the Hanson brothers, it's a new, stubborn team fronted by head coach Dave Tippett.

What would be more unlikely: The Chiefs' league title in Slap Shot the movie in 1977 or the Coyotes winning the Stanley Cup in real life in 2010?

Two things for sure: 1. The Phoenix Coyotes are the NHL’s story of the year for their surprising on-ice performance and position near the top of the western conference. 2. They continue to be its off-ice dog in terms of ticket sales and sponsorship revenues and hence, its most troubling sport business story for the third or fourth year in a row.

With a franchise record 98 points, the Coyotes are fourth overall among the 30 teams in the NHL and tied for second in the western conference – just one point behind the Chicago Blackhawks and knotted with the San Jose Sharks.

They are making the most of a season which they began in bankruptcy protection before being bought and taken over by the NHL itself in the Bettman-Balsillie-Moyes love triangle and sport business soap opera of last summer.

Yet despite being a lock to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years, the Coyotes are playing dead at the box office, despite impressive walk-up sales this month by spring break visitors from Vancouver and transplanted Chicagoans.

Phoenix is dead last among NHL teams in terms of ticket revenues earned per game. It is almost certainly also last in sponsorship revenues and tied for last in local television audiences. It is in the bottom five in the league in merchandising.

Going into this weekend, the Coyotes are averaging just north of $425,000 US per game at the box office. That's $125 K less per game than the next weakest NHL ticket machine, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Even perennial losers such as the New York Islanders -- in danger of moving out of an outdated arena and perhaps out of New York altogether -- and the Atlanta Thrashers -- out of the playoffs and in and out of court in a lawsuit among its owners -- make at least $225 K more every night out than the Coyotes. That's $9 million a year and change.

The Coyotes need an entire season to make as much box office revenue as the Vancouver Canucks do in a quarter-season Ice Pak of 11 games. Conversely, the Toronto Maple Leafs need only eight dates at the Air Canada Centre to outperform a 41-game regular season of Phoenix home games.

The Maple Leafs are the opposite of the Coyotes. Poor on the ice. Solid at the box office and in every category of off-ice hockey business: sponsorships, television revenues and merchandising.

Unless they reach the third round of the playoffs, the Coyotes will still lose at least $20 million US this year. That's a third of the losses they suffered last year but it's still nowhere near long-term sustainable.

Considering that the Coyotes have more points than any Canadian team, even the Northwest Division-leading Canucks, the only question NHL commissioner Bettman should be asking and imagining is what the Coyotes' sport business performance -- ticket sales, sponsorship sales, television and merchandising -- would be in a Canadian market such as Winnipeg or Southern Ontario or in even any northern U.S. market.

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Could Michael Jordan become the next Mario Lemieux?

As he embarks on his tenure as a majority owner in the NBA, former basketball superstar Michael Jordan could do worse than to follow the ownership manual written by former NHL superstar Mario Lemieux.

In fact, it appears he may have already read the first few pages.

Lemieux, the only other living former North American superstar to serve as principal owner and governor of a major league franchise with his beloved Pittsburgh Penguins, was one of the people Jordan consulted with before closing his recent $275 million US acquisition of the Charlotte Bobcats.

The deal not only made Jordan the first former player to hold a controlling interest in an NBA franchise, it made him fourth on the all-time list of former athletes to serve as a majority owner in North American sport.  The other two are Papa Bear George Halas, Sr., who played, coached and owned the NFL's Chicago Bears over a period spanning seven decades last century and former Baltimore Colts player Jerry Richardson, who ironically is the founding owner of Charlotte's other big league team, the Carolina Panthers of the NFL.

The Lemieux ownership manual is a must read for Jordan because the former #66 is the only person to win the Stanley Cup as both player and owner. After winning two Cups in the early 1990s, Lemieux became co-majority owner of the Penguins in 1999, buying the franchise out of bankruptcy with Ron Burkle. Jordan would like nothing more than to become basketball's Lemieux and add a title with the Bobcats to the six he won as the most famous Chicago Bull in the 1990s.
 
The Super Mario playbook will show how you go from bankruptcy to supremacy in 10 years...from being precariously close to relocation to drafting next-generation superstars such as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to making back-to-back Stanley Cup appearances, culminating in a championship in 2009.

The playbook also outlines the approach behind selling out more than 100 consecutive home games (and counting) and gaining the kind of community and corporate support that allows you to build a new, $321 million US arena, the Consol Energy Center, which opens this fall and will help the Penguins make the most of the Crosby era.

Lemieux used his personna and profile to get that support in Pittsburgh. He used his experience playing under both the late Bob Johnson and Scotty Bowman to understand how important it was for him to surround himself with hockey operations talent, including respected general managers such as Craig Patrick and Dan Shero. He used his credibility as a former player selectively, stepping up on occasion to inspire the Pens' lockerroom with a few choice words of wisdom.

They're wired differently and are different people, but Jordan has many of the same qualities. The same profile. The same championship pedigree. The same credibility as a former MVP and winner.

Even though he has less of a hill to climb than Lemieux did in 1999 and despite already overseeing basketball operations since 2006, that doesn't mean Jordan cannot benefit from using the Lemieux playbook to make the Bobcats successful, both on and off the court.

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The Public Relations strokes of Tiger Woods: On course, but still in the rough

The thinking here that, ultimately, the most important part of the business of sport is the business of winning will be put to the test in the case of golf icon Tiger Woods.

His twinned agenda -- the first being his pursuit of the Golden Bear and 18 majors and the second his attempts to repatriate a public image badly-tarnished since the night of November 27th, 2009 -- will be dominant storylines in the golf industry throughout 2010 and into 2011.

It's clear to me that he'll do much better on the field of play -- especially on Tiger-friendly golf courses such as Augusta, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews -- than he has fared off of it in recent months.

We'll never see Tiger in exactly the same way given the events and lurid revelations which were unleashed by the bizarre automobile accident at his home last fall. But winning will go a long way, as it has with other similarly-disgraced professional athletes and sports icons in the past.

Whether it's enough in itself -- for either Tiger or his various publics -- only time will tell. What's clear is that any of us expecting a complete reinvention of Tiger Woods as a media-centered, fan-friendly professional golfer are, as veteran columnist Cam Cole wrote in today's edition of The Vancouver Sun, "dreaming in technicolour".

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Cagey+Tiger+Woods+plays+questions/2713561/story.html

In my books, the handling of the media and PR firestorm surrounding the car accident itself and the resulting stories around his private life ranks among the worst-ever in professional sport, at least for an athlete of Woods's profile, especially given the massive resources and infrastructure he has at his disposal.

Doing nothing but a few short written statements on http://www.tigerwoods.com/ in the first three months was a mistake, especially as many of his corporate sponsors squirmed in the unwelcome attention his actions had caused.

Then doing nothing more than a highly-controlled, overly-staged media conference February 12th was another mistake, at least in that it was done in isolation from any other public communications and in that it contained now ridiculous-sounding vagueries like "not ruling out a return to golf this year" less than a month before the plan to return to Augusta was put in motion.

What we do is one thing. How we handle what we do -- especially our mistakes -- is another. The latter is often as important as the former in rebuilding public trust and connectivity. That's why the questionable approach taken by Tiger Woods, Inc. on all of this has been unfathomable to me in terms of public relations and personal brand management.

Yet by beginning to make himself available for interviews such as those delivered by Tom Rinaldi of ESPN and Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel Sunday evening, Tiger Woods is now at least back on the course of proper public relations. How and when he's doing it remains suspect -- in my view, he's still in the rough in terms of "getting it" -- but at least he's taking the basic steps that are part of the territory of being a professional in general and a professional athlete in particular.

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Vancouver 2010 Scorecard: Top Tens and Bottom Tens of Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

With the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Paralympics now in the books and in the conversation with Lillehammer 1994 as among the best in Winter Games history, it's time for our sport business scorecard for the most watched sports event -- and television event -- in Canadian history.

The Top 10s of Vancouver 2010

10. The Richmond Oval as the most impressive new sport venue in Canada since the opening of the Air Canada Centre in 1999 and VANOC's general approach to competition venues - smartly relying on upgrades to BC Place, Pacific Coliseum and General Motors Place/Canada Hockey Place; all completed on time, well in advance of the Games...an unusual feat for Olympic host cities;

9. Family marketing campaign centered around mascot team of Quatchi, Miga, Sumi and MukMuk, which engaged kids and schools in the Winter Games and kick-started strong merchandise sales and branding, smartly backed by the official colour pallette of wintry blues and greens symbolic of Canadian west coast;

8. Event ticket sales, surpassing previous record set in Salt Lake City 2002 (although it was still disappointing to see unfilled sections of IOC family seating at indoor venues, including for otherwise sold out hockey games at Canada Hockey Place);

7. In what amounted to the two single largest global branding opportunities in the history of Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada before worldwide audiences on television, computers and mobile phones, the staging of the opening and closing ceremonies of both the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games were solid (despite the mechanical failure of the indoor cauldron February 12th and a slight excess of cheese February 28th);

6. Domestic sponsorship sales which met and exceeded VANOC's $750 million in budget projections, despite impact of global economic recession, with kudos to Executive Vice-President Dave Cobb and his marketing team;

5. A host sport medical platform almost unanimously regarded by athletes and coaches as second to none in Winter Games history, engineered by the likes of VANOC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jack Taunton, Rick Celebrini, Dr. Mike Wilkinson and a team of British Columbian and Canadian leaders in their fields;

4. At 106 days, 45,000 kilometres and coast-to-coast-to-coast coverage, the longest domestic Olympic Torch Relay in history, with kudos to RBC and Coca-Cola for their classy activation around 12,000 torch bearers;

3. Own The Podium for provoking a change in the way we view our athletes and our capacity for success on the world stage, not to mention $110 million in training and technology support for Canadian Olympic team;

2. Vancouver 2010 merchandising and licensing campaign, especially by official retailer HBC and hot sales of Canadian Olympic team apparel, most notably the sea of red created by Hockey Canada's Nike jerseys;

1. John Furlong's strategic vision of Vancouver 2010 as "Canada's Games", a leadership position which rubbed off on Olympic Torch Relay presented by RBC and Coca-Cola, record television ratings, strong domestic sponsorships, provincial agreements, record ticket sales and record levels of Winter Games merchandising, not to mention expressions of patriotism and flag-waving like we've never seen before in Canada.

Bottom 10s of Vancouver 2010:

1. Tragic training run death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvilli on opening day of the Games;

2. Failure of federal, provincial and municipal governments to get their marketing, hospitality and tourism ducks in a row early enough (most notably a missed opportunity to present a fully-aligned and integrated message to visitors, trading partners and investors from around the world - although the weather and televised beauty shots of Vancouver and Whistler more than made up for it);

3. Inability to deliver a direct cash legacy for sport development like that of Calgary 1988, which would have been the ultimate follow-up punch to BC's 2010 Legacies Now and Canada's Own The Podium before the Games (shouldn't the IOC follow through with $22.5 million US or even $30 million US, the amount it fell short on its own worldwide partner budget for Vancouver 2010?);

4. Poorly-conceived fencing plan and poorer communications spin around outdoor cauldron at honourably-named Jack Poole Plaza;

5. Lack of stronger protocols and alignment between VANOC and sliding federations to ensure safer luge, skeleton and bobsleigh track at Whistler;

6. VANOC fueling greater pushback and negativity from international media in opening days of Vancouver 2010 by not more easily acknowledging mistakes and logistical wrinkles;

7. BC Place without the retractable roof that will only come 18 months after Vancouver 2010 and without new video screens and other bells and whistles which might have added even more pizzazz to the opening and closing ceremonies and nightly medal presentations (and further helped justify the province's hefty $563 million tab for the long-overdue stadium renovation);

8. Missed opportunity to "open" the opening ceremonies by creating a staged opportunity for tens of thousands more Canadians, British Columbians and Vancouverites -- unable to afford or otherwise access tickets priced at up to $1,100 a pop -- to witness Wayne Gretzky and a final procession of torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame from BC Place to the outdoor cauldron on opening night February 12th (instead of what came across as an afterthought, with only television audiences watching the Great One scrambling away in a pick up truck to the outdoor lighting at Cole Harbour);

9. Some questionable calls on overseas hires and foreign contracts when highly-touted and capable Canadian talent was ready and willing, in areas such as design, sport operations and, yes, Cirque de Soleil;

10. Community disconnects in the period leading to Vancouver 2010, ranging from misplaced aggression on trademark protection (especially in the early years) and VANOC not making the most of the opportunity to fully engage BC sports stakeholders to the exclusion of the global children's charity Right to Play and the BC government's wrong-headed decision to announce cut backs to the provincial sport system six months before Vancouver 2010 (despite boasting of its commitment to create the healthiest jurisdiction to ever host the Winter Games).

Net score: "Excellent and Friendly Games", with big wins at the international, domestic and local levels, where Vancouver's DNA will forever carry the designation of Olympic and Paralympic city and usher in a new era of sport business opportunities for the Pacific Gateway city.

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Leadership vacuum a problem for the business of professional hockey in North America

Is there anything more deafening than the silence of the lambs behind the National Hockey League Players Association?

Sure, we're the first to challenge the NHL's failure to understand how much a more balanced schedule -- in which each team hosts at least one visit from each of the other 29 clubs -- would add value for season ticket holders, the heart of the league's gate-driven business. We question the league's unclear global marketing strategy and its reluctance to commit to Sochi 2014.

We're always haranguing the NHL commissioner's office for its handling of the Phoenix Coyotes situation in general and its treatment of former owner Jerry Moyes -- not to mention former managing partner Wayne Gretzky. We are convinced the league's spin on its troubled franchises in the southern U.S. does little to create value for either the game of hockey and the owners in the NHL.

We believe the NHL could do much to strengthen its television platform, particularly in the U.S. where Versus is still as difficult to access as a question-and-answers media conference by Tiger Woods.

Yet the inability of the NHL's commissioner's office to inspire hockey fans on either side of the border is less worrisome than the tumbleweeds posing as leadership, advocacy and communications at the NHLPA during this 2010 regular season.

Still seeking to install its fourth executive director in five years, the NHLPA has been as invisible as Casper since the unfathomable firing of Paul Kelly in September. Interim executive director Ian Penny represented the union at the Kraft Hockeyville pre-season game in Terrace, B.C. but resigned himself only weeks later.

Since then, pretty much nada. Yes, former Major League Baseball Players Association kingpin Donald Fehr appears to have at least stabilized the operations of the dysfunctional NHLPA acting as an adviser for the past few months. That didn't give the NHLPA a public voice during the Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger incident earlier this season. It didn't lend the union any discernable profile at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. And it certainly hasn't offered any meaningful representation of NHL players during these weeks of consternation over blind side head shots.

All of this as the NHLPA is supposed to be ramping up to revamp escrow and push for other changes to the NHL's salary cap in the coming round of collective bargaining negotiations.

Firing the polished and media savvy Kelly was a mistake for a union desperately seeking stability and long-term vision and leadership. Going dark for much of the 2010 NHL season has been simply embarrassing.

The sooner the NHLPA confirms Fehr or Doug Allen of the NFLPA or NBAPA outside counsel David Feher or another candidate as its new executive director, the better. The lack of a full-time union boss is not only a liability for the NHLPA, it has only exacerbated the leadership vacuum at the top levels of professional hockey in North America.

It's not good for the association. Ironically, it's worse for the business of hockey.

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Player development is long-term, but Gillis already seeing short-term results for NHL's Canucks

There is much sport science research that shows athlete development is a long-term play, with 10 years of optimal training the typical standard before a high performance athlete reaches his or her full potential. There are no shortcuts.

Yet it is true that training backed by comprehensive sport medicine and science amenities, resources and services can yield significant mid-term and even short-term results.

Look no further than the Vancouver Canucks on their recent record-breaking 14-game road trip in the National Hockey League for an example.

The Canucks went 8-5-1, earning 17 of a possible 28 points, holding on to first place in the Northwest Divison despite being away from home for six weeks, including two weeks on either side of the NHL break for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Most impressive, they came from behind five times to overcome third-period deficits; a sign of team fitness and an upside attributed at least in large part to the player development priorities established by sophomore general manager Mike Gillis upon his arrival at Canucks Sports & Entertainment in 2008.

If Gillis has defined himself in less than two years on the job, it is through his commitment to player development in general and sport science in particular. He spearheaded expensive upgrades to the Canucks locker room and training amenities at General Motors Place. He and head coach Alain Vigneault have empowered strength and conditioning coach Roger Takahashi big time. He has ordered sleep management protocols and ordered sport nutrition counselling and even food preparation and delivery for certain players.

As a result, the Canucks are quickly earning a reputation as an athlete-centered organization and a progressive franchise -- arguably one of the league's leaders -- in the areas of sport medicine, sport science and sport training.

A former player agent, Gillis was a keen student on the various ways in which teams build equity in their rosters through free agent acquisitions, trades and the increasingly-important baseline of the NHL entry draft.

He was a quick study on the constraints of the salary cap era in the NHL and did not waste much time before moving on to the opportunities which existed to improve his on-ice product while living within the new spending limits. The rules say he can only spend so much on player contracts. But there is no limit to what a franchise can invest in training facilities, travel conditions, player development personnel and sport medicine and science expertise and programs; both at the level of the NHL roster and the Canucks' farm system.

Over time, the provision of top-drawer athlete services to players on the big club should continue to pay dividends for Gillis, Vigneault and the Canucks; on long road trips and -- they hope -- in gruelling playoff series. But the biggest rewards could come only years down the road, from the commitment to player development on the farm.

Gillis will be measured on both counts: how he balances the low beam pressure of scoring short-term results with the high beam vision of sustainable, long-term success. He is clearly betting on sport medicine and science as tools to help deliver both.

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What's shockingly bad for Real Madrid the soccer club is ironically not so bad for Madrid the city

This is not the way it was supposed to be for Real Madrid, which is a leading member of the Billion Dollar Club of sport franchises, among the soccer world's most storied megaclubs and one of the planet's leading sport brands.

Real Madrid finds itself and its Bwin.com jerseys on the sidelines after its aggregate loss to Lyon in the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, the biggest annual sports tournament in the world...on the outside looking in after spending more than $300 million in player acquisitions -- including $145 million US on Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United and $100 million US on Kaka from AC Milan -- with a view to winning some continental and international hardware...eliminated early in the year it will host the UEFA Champions League final May 22nd at Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.

It's a stunning turn of events for Real Madrid, which according to the accounting firm Deloitte led the world in sport franchise revenues by grossing $540.9 million US in 2007-'08, ahead of #2 FC Barcelona and #3 Manchester United.

The UEFA Champions League upset is bad news on the field for Real Madrid, but arguably worse off the field for the sport business juggernaut.

Real Madrid has already seen fewer replica jerseys sales than expected this year, behind United, Chelsea, Liverpool and others. Its attendance at Santiago Bernabeu is down eight per cent over last year, down to an average of 67,461 with Ronaldo and Kaka from 73,157 last year without them.

Now, according to Coventry University Business School professor Simon Chadwick, the Round of 16 loss will cost Real Madrid at least $80 million US in prize money, sponsorships, merchandising, television bonuses and other revenue streams related to advancing to the UEFA Champions League final.

Although it will not see the $100 million plus windfalls earned by runner-up Manchester United and champion FC Barcelona at last year’s final in Rome, Real Madrid will not be entirely shut out. It owns Santiago Bernabeu stadium and will be paid a formula for rent and revenue-sharing by UEFA.

The irony is that what's shockingly bad for Real Madrid -- a UEFA result that will seriously impact the club's business model and damage its ability to recoup much of its investment in players in the short or even mid-term -- is potentially good for the economy of the City of Madrid.

Two visiting clubs means more hotel rooms, more restaurant meals and more inflow for Madrid and for Spain, which finds itself in its worst recession since World War II. With two visiting clubs now guaranteed, the economic impact of hosting the UEFA final will be significantly higher, especially if the visiting fans are English or German, known for their penchant for traveling and spending.

We're talking about potential economic spin-offs worth more than $50 million US to the economy of Madrid.

Real Madrid fans will take little solace in that. In fact, some would argue the loss will leave a civic hangover and adversely affect employee productivity, consumer confidence and, ultimately, any gains realized from more soccer tourists in May.

Madrid the city should still win. But Real Madrid the soccer club -- adopting a high risk strategy hoping for the high reward of a UEFA Champions League title -- has a financial disaster on its hands.

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Paralympics would be better positioned as lead-in event to Olympic Winter Games

It is nothing more than hindsight to suggest the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games would have been better positioned as a lead-in event to the big show of the Olympic Winter Games. That ship has sailed. It is, however, foresight to suggest the International Paralympic Committee and International Olympic Committee should explore the best timing for each other's major winter sports showcases for Sochi 2014 and beyond.

Ultimately, full integration of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games would be ideal in promoting the magical talent and remarkable courage of disabled athletes as a signpost for the integration and inclusion of disabled people into society at large. Done properly, it could also deliver maximum functional effectiveness and financial efficiencies at the level of venues, organizing committees, staff, volunteers, broadcasters, media, sponsors and other third-party support networks.

The disadvantage of being lost in the Olympics would be more than made up by the bigger stage and attention from more than 10,000 visiting media and technicians (20 times the size of the media contingent covering this year's Winter Paralympics) and the massive domestic and international television rightsholders and sponsor delegations in tow for the big show.

But if the time for full integration of the Paralympic Winter Games with the Olympic Winter Games has not yet arrived, then surely staging the Paralympics before the Olympics rather than after merits consideration.

Beginning tonight and running for 10 days through March 21st, the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games are still a big event, coming as they do two weeks after the Olympic Winter Games February 12th-28th. They'd be a much bigger event -- and an even more useful event -- the other way around.

Holding the 2,750-athlete Olympics first and the 650-athlete Paralympics second is like U2 opening for the Bare Naked Ladies.

It is much harder to turn the lights back on after U2 and still get people excited about the Ladies than to have the Ladies warm up the audience and take advantage of the concert buzz before the headliners take charge. Yet that's exactly what the current timing asks of host organizing committees, management and staff, volunteers, media, broadcasters, sponsors and, for that matter, the host city and larger community.

There are missed opportunities for the Paralympics happening after the Olympics, even with the supposed advantages of having the floor to themselves for 10 days. Much of it is missing the chance to showcase their extraordinary athletes and inspirational stories in front of media arriving for the Olympics; not as many as who are here for the actual competition dates but still many times more than who are here two weeks after the Olympiad.

Also missed is the political opportunity to showcase these amazing Paralympic athletes before government dignitaries and public policy makers from around the world.

The missed opportunities for the Olympics are equally important, if not more important. Inclusion of the Paralympics in the 10 days before the Winter Games would only add more substance and anticipation to the Olympics; more excitement and spirit in future host cities such as Sochi 2014. It would help the Olympic organizing committee ramp up for the big show, testing venues, transportation, security, media and broadcast facilities and other logistics.

As Vancouver 2010 showed, the Winter Games are a beast of an international event to stage and there is no such thing as too much preparation and practice; no better way to work out kinks and ensure smooth operations than real-time delivery.

Paralympics preceding the Olympics would be more than a valuable and practical rehearsal - it would be an inspirational opening act for the Olympic movement...and the first step towards full integration.

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Sandra Bullock's win for The Blind Side puts some shine on sport movies

The Blind Side was never going to blind side The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Up in the Air, Precious or any of the other top contenders for best picture at the 82nd Academy Awards Sunday night. Nonetheless, Sandra Bullock's win for best actress in a category in which she beat out the legendary Meryl Streep is good news for the sport movie genre.

It's the first Oscar for a sport movie since Million Dollar Baby won four (Best Picture, Best Actress for Hilary Swank, Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman and Best Director for Clint Eastwood) in 2005.

Bullock's win closes out a remarkable season of critical acclaim and Hollywood honours for the former Miss Congeniality. She tied Streep at the Critic's Choice Awards and won the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards. Every turn she took in the spotlight meant more eyeballs on The Blind Side, which has earned $250 million at the box office and will be a hot release on DVD March 23rd.

The sport movie Oscar for Bullock follows two nominations for The Wrestler last year (Mickey Rourke as best actor and Marisa Tomei as best supporting actress) in what appears to be the beginning of an upswing for the genre, which has been mostly Will Ferrell comedies and mostly dreck over the past half-decade.

Why The Blind Side might open the door to more and better scripts for sport movies in the coming years is as much about box office as it is about the critical acclaim and awards. Critics loved The Wrestler but it earned a relatively modest $44.7 million at the box office (but a solid ROI on a $6 million production budget).

Produced for $30 million, The Blind Side is the first sport movie since Million Dollar Baby (which also cost $30 million) to win both good reviews and good money (Eastwood's boxing film earned the four Oscars and $216 million worldwide). And in Hollywood, where as in most business sectors success breeds success, it's all about box office.

Yet the difference this year is that The Blind Side is two things: it's part of the best crop of sport movies since 2004 (which also featured Miracle and Friday Night Lights) and the deepest list in more than a decade (with more than 10 releases, not including the solid documentaries which are helping ESPN mark its 30th anniversary and others closer to home such as Facing Ali).

Better still: it's one of a series of real-life stories (along with rugby's Invictus and soccer's Damned United) adapted to the big screen this year.

That's the best sign of all for the genre because its true stories are its biggest strength. It's a big reason to expect studios will receive a lot of sport movie pitches this year and, more important, why they'll be more receptive.

For more on this year's sport movies and The Sport Market Movie Awards, click
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Viewers+blind+sided+best+years+sports+films+cinematic+history/2649573/story.html

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Vancouver 2010's greatest gift: the lesson of inspiring by overcoming adversity

Event management is a case study in multi-tasking. Event management for an international competition -- particularly at the level of the Olympic Winter Games -- is the most complex beast of all. There are many things event organizers can control....and many they cannot.

Weather conditions cannot be controlled. How event organizers react to it can be.

That's why the greatest gift that VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, gave the city of Vancouver, the province of British Columbia and all of Canada is how they responded to a rough start to Vancouver 2010.

It is a case study in pursuing excellence even in the face of adversity.

After four days marred by logistical problems exacerbated by the weather, mechanical failures and the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvilli, the Games could have slid the slippery slope of continued problems and spiraled into disaster. Failure can become defeat if individuals, teams or entire organizing committees comprised of thousands of people, stop trying in the face of mistakes, criticism or plain bad luck.

Instead, the leadership of VANOC, its management and volunteers made the adjustments needed to turn Vancouver 2010 into one of the best Winter Games in history.

To rally from the tough opening weekend of Vancouver 2010, the people behind VANOC did not have to look far for inspiration.

They needed only to witness the courage of the Georgian Olympic team which walked into the Opening Ceremonies February 12th, only hours after the training run death of their teammate Kumaritashvilli. Their body language did not hide their heavy hearts. It only reflected the sadness shared by all.

They needed only to look at Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic, who picked herself up from several broken ribs suffered in a training run to win a bronze medal for her country.

They needed only to see Joannie Rochette's steely determination to persevere in the days after the death of her mother. Persevere she did, in bronze.

Jeff Lee of The Vancouver Sun (http://www.vancouversun.com/) said it best when he wrote today that the true spirit of Olympism is the ability to overcome and to inspire.

The teammates of Kumaritashvilli did. So did Majdic and Rochette. So did countless other athletes who battled adversity at lesser but still challenging levels, bouncing back from falls, injuries and poor first runs to come from behind to win Olympic gold.

Those individual case studies of the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity and inspire serve as a fitting metaphor for how VANOC responded to the obstacles of event management to deliver an excellent Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

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